Prayer

The life-line of the Christian: prayer. The effectual fervent prayer of the righteous availeth much. Pray saints, pray. Learn to pray till you have prayed. See the hand of the Lord not shortened and His ears not deaf to the cry of the Spirit-filled; and instill the desire for prayer into the life of your children.

"Hear my cry, O God; attend unto my prayer. From the end of the earth will I cry unto thee, when my heart is overwhelmed: lead me to the rock that is higher than I." Psalm 61:1-2

Oh God, make me a woman…who has God first in every area of my life; wholly devoted to the Father, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit. Make me faithful…faithful in prayer; faithful in times of fasting; faithful in Bible reading; faithful in memorizing and meditating on His word; faithful in rising early to give Him the first part of my day; faithful in praise. Make me obedient…instantly obedient to the clear direction of God through His Word and Spirit; that the Lord Jesus Christ might be manifest in my life, to the glory of the Father, by the power of the Holy Spirit; daily seeking God’s direction.

A young man went home from one of our meetings some time ago. He had been converted. He had previously been a dissipated young man. His mother had made it a rule, she told me, that she "would not retire till he came home." That was her rule, she said, "never to go to bed till my boy was at home. If he did not come home till five o'clock in the morning, I sat up, and when he was out all night I got no sleep; but when he came home I always met him with a kiss. I threw my arms around his neck. I treated him just as if he was kind, attentive and good.

Sometimes he would be out all night. Those nights I would not go to bed. He used to know it. One night he came home. I looked to see if he was under the influence of liquor. He came up to me, and he said, 'Mother, I have been converted,' and then I fell on his neck and embraced him, and wept over him tears of joy. Why," said she, "Mr. Moody, you don't know what joy it gave me. I cannot tell you. You don't know what a load it took off my heart. You don't know how I praised God that my prayers had been answered.

The other day I read of a mother who died, leaving her child alone and very poor. She used to pray earnestly for her boy, and left an impression upon his mind that she cared more for his soul than she cared for anything else in the world. He grew up to be a successful man in business, and became very well off. One day, not long ago, after his mother had been dead for twenty years, he thought he would remove her remains, and put her into his own lot in the cemetery, and put up a little monument to her memory.

"Oh, Amma! Amma! Do not pray! Your prayers are, troubling me!" We all looked up in astonishment. We had just had our Band Prayer Meeting, when a woman came rushing into the room and began to exclaim like this. She was the mother of one of our girls, of whom I told you once before. She is still in the Terrible's den. Now the mother (A devote Hindu) was all excitement and poured out a curious story.

Some years ago, as I was about to close a prayer meeting, a young man got up and urged all those men present that had not yet accepted of Christ, to do so that night. And in closing up his little speech, he said, "I once had a father and mother that cared more for my soul than for anything else.

Though God is calling Christians everywhere to pray, this little article is specifically to call Christian mothers to daily, earnest, believing prayer.

God said repeatedly, “Ask and you shall receive,” and He modeled the asking after a child’s asking his father for what he needs and wants. This is an object lesson that all mothers should surely be able to understand. How our hearts yearn after our children. How we desire to give them what they need and want. We understand a mother’s heart, and most of us watch a father’s heart as our dear husbands work with our children. Why then do we find it difficult to pray? Why do we worry and fret? Why are we anxious? Why do we take so long to understand our place of prayer?